Ark Restaurants Corp (ARKR) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings and welcome to the Ark Restaurants second quarter 2025 results conference call. (Operator Instructions)

大家好，歡迎參加 Ark Restaurants 2025 年第二季業績電話會議。（操作員指示）

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Chris Love, Secretary. Thank you, and you may begin.

現在我很高興向大家介紹主持人、國務卿克里斯洛夫。謝謝，您可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you for joining us on our conference call for the second quarter ended March 29, 2025. My name is Christopher Love, and I am the Secretary of Ark Restaurants.

謝謝您，接線生。早安，感謝您參加我們截至 2025 年 3 月 29 日的第二季電話會議。我叫克里斯多福‧洛夫 (Christopher Love)，是 Ark Restaurants 的秘書。

With me on the call today is Michael Weinstein, our Chairman and CEO; and Anthony Sirica, our CFO. For those of you who have not yet obtained a copy of our press release, it was issued over the newswires yesterday and is available on our website. To review the full text of that press release, along with the associated financial tables, please go to our homepage at www.arkrestaurants.com.

今天與我一起參加電話會議的還有我們的董事長兼執行長 Michael Weinstein 和我們的財務長安東尼·西里卡 (Anthony Sirica)。對於尚未獲得我們新聞稿副本的人來說，它昨天已透過新聞通訊社發布，並可在我們的網站上查閱。要查看該新聞稿的全文以及相關財務表，請造訪我們的主頁 www.arkrestaurants.com。

Before we begin, however, I'd like to read the Safe Harbor Statement. I need to remind everyone that part of our discussion this morning will include forward-looking statements and that these statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore, undue reliance should not be placed on them.

不過，在我們開始之前，我想先讀安全港聲明。我需要提醒大家，我們今天早上的討論內容將包括前瞻性陳述，這些陳述並不能保證未來的表現，因此，不應過度依賴它們。

We refer everyone to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a more detailed discussion of the risks that may have a direct bearing on our operating results, performance and financial condition.

我們請大家參閱我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件，以便更詳細地討論可能對我們的經營成果、業績和財務狀況產生直接影響的風險。

I'll now turn the call over to Michael.

我現在將電話轉給邁克爾。

Hi, everybody. I'm going to turn it over to Anthony to try to explain a little bit better the financial data that we've put forth in the press release, but it's -- it feel uncomplicated for you.

大家好。我會把它交給安東尼，讓他嘗試更好地解釋我們在新聞稿中提出的財務數據，但對你來說，這感覺並不復雜。

Yeah, sure. There's a couple of things in here that require explanation. At the end of the quarter, our cash balance was $11.1 million, that was up actually approximately $900,000 from year-end. Our debt was down to $4.3 million as a result of principal payments made during the quarter. As we discussed on previous calls, our credit agreement expires on June 1.

是的，當然。這裡有幾件事需要解釋。截至本季末，我們的現金餘額為 1,110 萬美元，實際上比年底增加了約 90 萬美元。由於本季償還了本金，我們的債務降至 430 萬美元。正如我們在之前的電話會議中討論的那樣，我們的信用協議將於 6 月 1 日到期。

We are working with the bank, and we're in the process of finalizing a new facility with our current lender, which will provide somewhere between $15 million to $20 million of total capacity. The current $4.3 million will be termed out over a three year period.

我們正在與銀行合作，並正在與現有貸款機構敲定一項新的貸款，該貸款將提供總計 1500 萬至 2000 萬美元的貸款。目前的 430 萬美元將分三年支付。

As you saw in the press release, there are two significant noncash items in the current quarter, the first of which is a goodwill impairment. As you're aware, we look at our goodwill on an annual basis, but we're also required to see if there are any triggering events in an interim period based on a decline in our stock price at the end of the quarter.

正如您在新聞稿中看到的，本季有兩項重大的非現金項目，第一項是商譽減損。如您所知，我們每年都會審查我們的商譽，但我們還需要根據季度末股價的下跌來查看中期是否有任何觸發事件。

We went through the analysis, and we had to write off the balance of our goodwill in the amount of $3.4 million. Unfortunately, that is a point-in-time test. And if the stock goes up, you can't put it back on the books. It's a non-cash item, but it's unfortunate as far as the timing.

我們進行了分析，發現我們必須註銷 340 萬美元的商譽餘額。不幸的是，這只是一個時間點測試。如果股票上漲，你就無法將其重新記入帳簿。這是非現金項目，但就時機而言很不幸。

We also have the uncertainty surrounding the Bryant Park leases, which we'll discuss obviously, at length, which factored into the analysis. In booking that write-off, it then caused us to be in a cumulative loss position for purposes of analyzing our deferred tax assets. So based on that analysis, we then had to impair -- I'm sorry, put a full valuation allowance on our deferred tax assets of $4.8 million that will continue to be looked at every quarter as things improve.

我們也面臨布萊恩特公園租賃的不確定性，我們顯然會對此進行詳細討論，這也是分析中的一個因素。在記錄該註銷時，它導致我們在分析遞延稅務資產時處於累計虧損狀態。因此，基於該分析，我們必須減損——抱歉，我們必須對 480 萬美元的遞延所得稅資產提列全額估值準備金，隨著情況的改善，我們將繼續每季對其進行審查。

So it's possible that, that valuation allowance could be released in future quarters or years. But right now, we had to put a full valuation allowance on that. So that caused the massive tax rate that you see there in the P&L. With respect to the rest of the balance sheet, there really weren't any significant changes other than the goodwill write-off and the write-off of the valuation allowance on the deferred taxes.

因此，該估值準備金有可能在未來幾季或幾年內釋放。但現在，我們必須對此進行充分的估價。所以這導致了您在損益表中看到的高額稅率。就資產負債表的其餘部分而言，除了商譽註銷和遞延稅項的估價準備金註銷之外，實際上沒有任何重大變化。

With that, I'll turn it over to Michael.

說完這些，我就把麥克風交給麥可。

Thank you. So I want to save the discussion for Bryant Park and Meadowlands for the latter part of my discussion. Primarily, what you should know is the EBITDA this quarter, the March quarter was negatively affected by some $650,000 of consultancy fees and legal fees in conjunction with our fight to retain the Bryant Park lease. So if that had not been the case, the EBITDA would have shown an improvement over the comparable quarter last year.

謝謝。因此，我想將布萊恩特公園和梅多蘭茲的討論留到後半部分。首先，您應該知道的是本季的 EBITDA，即在我們爭取保留布萊恩特公園租約的過程中，3 月季度受到了約 65 萬美元的諮詢費和法律費用的負面影響。因此，如果不是這種情況，EBITDA 將比去年同期有所改善。

First, I'd like to go through the various venues. Alabama continues to be just very steady. We're doing well there. The New York restaurants, Robert is doing well. The Florida restaurants seem to have picked up from comparable periods last year in terms of revenue on a whole.

首先，我想介紹一下各個場館。阿拉巴馬州繼續保持非常穩定。我們在那裡做得很好。羅伯特在紐約的餐廳生意很好。就整體收入而言，佛羅裡達州的餐廳似乎比去年同期有所回升。

The Washington D.C. restaurant, we have new management. I see some improvement there. The big improvement is coming from Las Vegas. We're considerably more efficient than we've ever been there. While volumes are steady, we're -- the cash flows weekly are improving dramatically.

華盛頓特區餐廳，我們有了新的管理階層。我看到那裡有一些進步。最大的進步來自拉斯維加斯。我們的效率比以前任何時候都要高得多。雖然交易量穩定，但每週的現金流都在大幅改善。

We did a cash flow analysis for the bank in conjunction with our new credit facility, and we did that not on a fiscal or calendar year, but they wanted it as of April 1 through of this year through March 30 of next year because that coincided with the question of whether we would keep our Bryant Park facility or not.

我們結合新的信貸安排為銀行做了現金流分析，我們不是按照財政年度或日曆年度進行的，但他們希望從今年 4 月 1 日至明年 3 月 30 日進行分析，因為這與我們是否保留布萊恩特公園設施的問題相吻合。

And we did that, I guess, in February and March. I would tell you that we're probably running $2 million ahead of that projection in terms of our operating cash flow. So things are improving. We're still looking at deals. We hope that we'll be able to close on a couple of things we're looking at in the next few months. But the important thing here is the Bryant Park situation.

我想，我們在二月和三月就這麼做了。我想告訴你，就我們的經營現金流而言，我們可能比預期高出 200 萬美元。情況正在好轉。我們仍在尋找交易。我們希望能夠在接下來的幾個月內完成我們正在考慮的幾件事。但這裡重要的是布萊恩特公園的情況。

So as you know, our leases expired on April 30. We are a holdover tenant. We have filed the claim in New York Supreme Court, which is a lower court in New York making allegations that basically request for proposal process was corrupted that the basis of the claim is that they've chosen a tenant, at least the Bryant Park Corporation has chosen a tenant, which has not yet been approved by the Parks Department of New York City Library, whose approval is needed, but they chose a tenant whose initial bid in the RFP proposal reply was [$1.2 million] when we were already paying $3.1 million that the percentage rent deal was literally 4 points lower than ours that they intend to close the restaurant for over a year, that they're asking for free rent of 18 months and that they're asking for a tenant improvement miles from the park.

如您所知，我們的租約於 4 月 30 日到期。我們是續租的房客。我們已經向紐約最高法院（紐約下級法院）提起訴訟，指控稱提案請求流程基本上存在腐敗，訴訟依據是他們已經選擇了一個租戶，至少布萊恩特公園公司已經選擇了一個租戶，但該租戶尚未獲得紐約市圖書館公園管理局的批准（需要獲得該管理局的批准），但他們選擇的租戶在 RFP 提案回復中的初始價格為我們 [120 萬美元的租金協議為我們支付了 30 萬美元，而我們實際上支付了 30 萬美元的百分比個百分點，他們打算關閉餐廳一年多，他們要求免租 18 個月，並且他們要求對距離公園數英里的租戶進行改善。

All of this just speaks of a process that no other landlord would allow to replace a tenant paying substantially more, who's been in business for 30 years and running one of the largest grossing restaurants in the United States. There is no reason for this to have occurred other than a conflict of interest on the part of the Bryant Park Corporation executives.

所有這些都表明，沒有其他房東會允許更換一位支付更多租金的房客，已經經營了 30 年，經營著美國收入最高的餐廳之一。發生這種情況的唯一原因是布萊恩特公園公司高層存在利益衝突。

So we have a case filed in Supreme Court. It will take probably 1 year or 1.5 years to make its way through. In the meantime, we expect the landlord to start an eviction proceeding, which will probably be subsumed by the Supreme Court until our case is fully heard.

因此我們向最高法院提起了訴訟。大概需要 1 年或 1.5 年的時間才能完成。同時，我們預計房東將啟動驅逐程序，該程序可能會被最高法院受理，直到我們的案件得到充分審理。

So we think we're definitely there for the next year, 1.5 years. We hope at some point, there'll be a political settlement to the situation. But right now, we're operating and we're not going anywhere. In response to questions about Meadowlands, we've always said that the Meadowlands possibility of getting a casino license is dependent upon New Jersey moving in response to downstate New York City casino licenses. Those have not been issued yet.

所以我們認為我們肯定會在未來一年或一年半內實現這一目標。我們希望最終能夠透過政治手段解決這個問題。但現在，我們正在運營，我們哪裡也不去。在回答有關 Meadowlands 的問題時，我們一直表示，Meadowlands 獲得賭場執照的可能性取決於新澤西州對紐約州南部賭場執照的回應。這些尚未發行。

We -- from what we read and from what we hear, that will happen sometime before the end of this year. They'll allocate the three licenses. One will go to Yonkers for sure, one will go to the Aqueduct for sure, where the third one goes is still up for grabs.

根據我們所讀到的和聽到的消息，這將在今年年底之前的某個時候發生。他們將分配這三個許可證。一艘一定會去揚克斯，一艘一定會去渡槽，第三艘會去哪裡還不得而知。

But once that happens, we think New York State will recognize that they'll be sending New York State residents from the northern part of the state, which has very well to do demographics to New York City to gamble, and they're not going to want that to happen, and the Meadowlands is in the best position of any location to satisfy the demands for casino gaming in Northern New Jersey.

但一旦發生這種情況，我們認為紐約州就會意識到，他們將把紐約州居民從人口結構非常豐富的紐約州北部地區派往紐約市賭博，他們不會希望這種情況發生，而梅多蘭茲是滿足新澤西州北部賭場遊戲需求的最佳地點。

So those are the two big issues with us. The rest of the business seems to be doing fine. And I would say to you that we think it's going to continue to improve. And we're out there hunting for deals. So that's the plan.

這就是我們面臨的兩個大問題。其餘業務似乎進展良好。我想告訴你們，我們認為情況將會繼續改善。我們在那裡尋找交易。這就是計劃。

I'll take questions at this point.

現在我將回答大家的提問。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

And there are no questions at this time. Therefore, I would like to turn the floor back to CEO, Michael Weinstein, for closing remarks.

目前還沒有問題。因此，我想請執行長 Michael Weinstein 致最後總結。

Okay. Thank you, everybody. Speak to you next quarter.

好的。謝謝大家。下個季度再和你談談。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的會議到此結束，大家可以斷開線路了。感謝您的參與。